On “Project Runway” Season 8 Episode 10, “There’s a Pattern Here,” the seven remaining designers were challenged to create their own textiles. (Just like last season; Emilio Sosa won that challenge.)

Their garment design could be anything, but the textile design had to be something very personal. All the contestants were shown photos from their youth.

I'm still not a Mondo design fan, but he's true to himself and that's what matters.

Mondo Guerra was raised Catholic. He came out to his mom at age 17 and she wanted to keep that a secret. He explained that his textile was based on a plus sign that represents his HIV positive status.

He’s held the secret for 10 years of his life. That’s amazing. He’s 32.

Mondo: “This has been so hard to keep a secret from my parents because I feel guilt and I feel shame. I feel like if they knew, I don’t know if they’d know how to deal with it and I’ve just realized that I can’t live that way anymore. I can’t hide anything because I am such a better person than just being a coward.”

Wow.

Mondo’s mom showed up for the day — along with everyone else’s family members, and Christopher’s hot boyfriend, JJ — and he didn’t tell her about his HIV status. He wanted to, but he knows when she finds out it’s going to hurt and he didn’t want to ruin her first trip to New York. 😦

Bravo, Mondo, for your bravery in coming out publicly like this and for being able to use a difficult personal secret as an opportunity for artistic catharsis. I have not always (or even often) been Team Mondo in terms of his designs, but I will always be Team Mondo when it comes to Mondo as a person. He has proven himself to be kind to everyone — especially the bullied Michael Costello — and he deserves the bright future “Runway” will give him.

(But what’s this about Mondo being “rude” to Heidi Klum — who is making herself the client again — in the previews for next week’s episode? Or is that more manipulative editing?)

I do think this is just further proof that Mondo will win Season 8. Not only is he the judges’s favorite designer, he has proven that he can work with the difficulties in his life and let them propel him instead of stopping him. (Like Andy? Poor Andy. I still love him.)

… but I guess we’re going to get to that next week, or sometime later before the finale.

**** ON THE RUNWAY ****

“There’s a Pattern Here”

Gretchen Jones — Hate the design of the top, but I do love the print. Judges: Heidi Klum loves the print. Michael Kors likes the pants, but not how the print is placed. It’s like “fried egg on the boob.” Nina Garcia likes the print, but she’s disappointed in the outfit. She expected more from Gretchen. Guest judge Rachel Roy says it’s “almost” there.

April Johnston — Black and white again, but I like it. It’s creative and edgy. My favorite. Judges: As soon as the model turned the corner MK got the friction and pulling she was going for. He very much likes the bodice and the idea of the print but the scraps don’t work for him. Nina thinks it’s a charming print and she likes the silhouette. This is Rachel’s favorite print. It has the most unique voice. It’s also Heidi’s favorite print. She doesn’t like the “poofiness,” though.

Andy, this really is awful. You're my favorite, but ... please.

Andy South — Boring. He wishes he could start over. Me too. Andy, I love you but even I can’t defend this. Judges: Rachel likes the print. She says it has a painterly feel, but the outfit itself is “odd and confusing and upsetting.” It’s not sexy. The print makes Nina sad. She is disappointed in him because she’s seen things from him that are interesting. “What happened?” He blames his mom, basically. MK likes the print too but he’s dumbed himself down. MK sees a face in the clothes. A sad face. Heidi thinks it’s “unwearable.”

Mondo Guerra — Very Mondo. The designers all said “whoa!” They love it. Judges: Nina wants to know what the story is. But she calls it “fantastic” and “phenomenal.” MK loves the way he mixes prints. He thinks she looks fabulous without the jacket too. Rachel says it’s something she would love to wear. Rachel wants to know the inspiration. She thinks the print looks too perfect?

Why were all of the judges asking so much about Mondo’s inspiration, in particular? They didn’t seem to push as hard for the other designers. Were they told to try to tease out the secret? Smells like a set up. (I do know that in real time these runway critiques take hours, it just feels a bit false to me for the editing to focus so much on the judges happening to question Mondo over and over about his inspiration, before he decided to share.)

Mondo felt like that was the moment to share his experience. He told Nina the pluses referred to his status as HIV positive. “I’ve been HIV positive for 10 years. And when I saw these pictures of my family it brought back a lot of emotion and so I wanted to pool from the past, but I also wanted to give something back of who I am now and that I’ve been so scared of and hiding from and that’s the story.” Afterward he said he felt a lot better. “I feel free.” In the workroom, he talked to his fellow designers about it. They were all supportive. “I feel so good. I feel so good.”

Valerie Mayen — Meh. No. Judges: Heidi said it looked familiar because there are more napkins. This looks nothing like the party store napkin dress, which was actually gorgeous. MK thinks it’s an odd choice of fabrics to layer. There’s nothing appealing about it. Nina said the overall effect of the design is very heavy.

Michael Costello — What is with the napkin boob trend? Blech. Judges: MK said she literally looks like she’s wearing a men’s old-fashioned tie that got cut off. It looks funny like a joke. Heidi likes that, she thinks it makes it look cool. No one seems to actually like the print. Nina wanted better styling. MK called it “Annie Hall” at the country club.

Valerie's party store napkin dress was gorgeous. This is not.

Christopher Collins — It reminds me of Casanova’s look that was declared too old. But I like it, as I liked his other look. Judges: Rachel doesn’t see the water in the print. Nina thinks they’re fine clothes, but they’re not fashion. She wants to see outstanding clothes. “I want to see fashion here!” Heidi wrote “nice, safe, boring.”

*WINNER & LOSER*

Mondo won his third challenge in a row. This whole season has been a personal roller coaster for the guy. I think he wins even if he doesn’t technically win. (But I’m pretty darn sure he will win.)

It came down to Andy vs. Valerie. It was not a good week for Andy, but he has more potential than Valerie. Valerie has been going downhill for a very long time.

Bye Valerie! At least she honored her father,in her fashion.And she said goodbye to everyone in such a sweet, open-hearted, emotional way. Hugs for Valerie!

9 comments

I absolutely adore and admire him. I was in tears, not because of his status, but seeing him finally unload such a burden he carried on his back all those years. I am absolutely pro on being “free” to be yourself, love, etc and I’m happy for him to finally get to this point in his life and use it positively to inspire and help others. BRAVO! I would also like to note Michael is my heart as well. I especially appreciate him when he teams up with Mondo, as I can see a special friendship between the two of them.

From article: “Why were all of the judges asking so much about Mondo’s inspiration, in particular? They didn’t seem to push as hard for the other designers. Were they told to try to tease out the secret? Smells like a set up.”

Come on, Gina. As the writer of this column, you should know the on-runway judge/designer banter goes on for quite a long while with only mere moments making the final edit. It’s safe to say with all other designers being so free and open about their inspirations and Mondo by contrast resisting, it made the judges especially curious and persistent.

The only set-up here was the clever editing that paid off Mondo’s dramatic confession.

“Why were all of the judges asking so much about Mondo’s inspiration, in particular? They didn’t seem to push as hard for the other designers. Were they told to try to tease out the secret? Smells like a set up.” I don’t know if the producers knew that was coming. The interviews with Mondo talking about his postive status were done after the fasion show (You can tell by what he is wearing.)

Keep in mind, all of these are greatly edited down. It’s very possible they did ask all the other designers and the show just edited it out.

When Mondo revealed his secret you could genuinely feel and see the weight of it lift off him. This episode was inspiring on many levels. Valerie’s goodbye to each of the remaining participants was one of the classiest things I’ve ever watched on reality TV. She brought me to tears almost as much as Mondo! Her genuine loving spirit was evident and admirable. I wish her much success!

Ugh. They all really suck this season. Petty, horrible people, most of them. At least Mondo has some talent. You think Chris March would have been as dickish as they all were to Michael C? Not one could shine Christian’s shoes. They are as likeable as the cast of Jersey Shore.